Detective Katie
by CaityLightning
Summary: When Katie wakes up with a gut feeling something bad is about to happen, she encounters a horrific sight. Travis' blood, in the middle of the Hermes Cabin. The scent do strawberries engulf her, the voices of Connor and Chiron confuse her, and love journeys with her as she solves the mystery ahead of her. Bit of an AU. Enjoy! :D
1. Chapter 1

**I was looking at my Polls, and I saw the someone had chose a Percy Jackson fanfic... So here I am! Without further ado, my Tratie story! **

**Enjoy!**

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Katie shot out of bed one morning, bare feet contacting with the icy floor. Cold sweet peppered her face, with a gut wrenching tug at her stomach.

_'Somethings wrong.' _She thought to herself.

Katie quickly changed out of her pajamas, to soon realize it was still dark outside. She checked her clock, _'5:37?' _

She raced her way to the Hermes cabin to see Travis, her boyfriend of 2 years.

After passing a few cabins, she was face-to-face with God Hermes cabin. She gulped down a lump in her throat as she saw the cabins lights on.

_'Why are they up so early..?' _

Katie heard a loud pang come from inside the cabin, she pushed the cabin door open alarmingly to see Travis on the floor, unconscious, with Connor, his twin (A/N: I know, I know they're not twins!), huddling over him.

"C-Connor, w-what happened?" Katie's vocal cords betrayed her, as her voice came out cracked and broken.

Connor had tears streaming down his face as he looked at the daughter of Demeter. Opening his mouth to say something but processing no sound.

"What happened?" Katie demanded firmly. Fists clenched, jaw tightened.

Connor winced at her hardened tone. "He collapsed and now he... he won't... hes still not..."

Just as Connor broke down into another fit of hysterical tears, Chiron burst through the cabin door, panting with worry plastered on his ancient face.

"Connor listen to me," Chiron said strongly, but fear hidden behind is hard features. "Travis might not make it... So, we need to be moving now!"

Katie was now in a state of shock. _'How can this be...?' _

Katie tried to block out all that was happening around her, she closed her eyes and pretended she was in the strawberry fields but she heard loud and obnoxious footsteps and gallops hurrying out the door, she couldn't bear the pain she felt in her chest. As if, someone ripped out a piece of her heart. Hypothetically speaking, she did get her heart yanked out of her chest. Travis was her other piece, the piece that was always missing until Mister Stoll here came and filled her heart, and made it whole again. He was her other half that made HER whole.

Katie felt complete when being around Travis, but, now that he's injured and possibly might not come back, her heart is missing again.

_'Come on Travis! You can make it! I-I need you, so please don't leave!' _Katie thought, as she chocked back disturbingly loud whimpers.

And with that final thought, Katie opened her eyes to find an empty room, alone again. Katie's eyes downcast to the floor, where she noticed a small pool of blood, Travis's blood. She walked over to it, bent down, never losing eye contact with it, and began crying floods of tears that she knew wold probably never stop.

She was kneeling down on her knees when she smelled... strawberry syrup? She wiped what she thought were her final tears, and searched for the intoxicating sweet scent. She got up from the floor and started searching the room for the particularly familiar substance, then finalizing her theorem she thought to herself, _'What in the Hermes Cabin doesn't smell like; garbage, old pizza or stale pop?' _Then it hit her.

"Blood." she said to no one in particular. "The blood..." she said to herself. "The blood must be strawberry syrup... Wait... why am I talking to myself?" Katie asked herself.

She shrugged off the question and quickly scurried her way to the pool of "blood" that was lying in the middle of the cabin. "Why is the blood in only clean part of the cabin...? Again with this self-talking thing! Ugh, I need to get out more often!" she kneeled down once again beside the blood puddle, and took a sniff of it.

Yep, definitely strawberry syrup! She dabbed her finger in the sticky substance, and sniffed it again to make sure it wasn't poisoned, you know how those Stolls worked, and licked it. It was syrup, but the cheap Dollar Store kind you buy for Halloween. She whipped her head around alarmingly, almost receiving whiplash as punishment, as she heard, _drip drip_, Katie made her way over to the apparent silvery-two-foot-tall garbage can.

There was a broken syringe hanging from between the lid and the mouth, with the strawberry liquid dripping aimlessly onto the ground. Katie gave a confused, brows forrowing, look at the garbage disposal unit.

She held onto the snout and took it out of the can. Katie read the label intently as it said, 'Scary Fake Strawberry Blood! Property of Jerry's Jokes Store.' Katie rolled her eyes as she read the title.

Katie was still reading the package when she heard footsteps from outside the cabin walls. She whipped her head to the side twice as hard this time, causing a sharp pain to ease its way onto her neck bone, and making her hold the side of her neck not wanting herself to make noise, but failing miserably had dropped the half-filled syringe onto the floor with a, _thud. _

She heard hushed voices from outside, it was Connor and Chiron. _'What the hell are they doing?'_ The thought reverberating through Katie's head. As she got closer to the door to examine the Conversation.

"Shhhh boy, someone could hear us!" Chiron exclaimed rather loudly.

"Shut up old man! You're gonna get us figured out!" Connor emphasized rather harshly.

Chiron grunted in responce. "Okay, but why child? Why are you doing this to the poor girl?" Chiron said helplessly.

"Because, once Travis reaches a certain point in time, Travis decides to give the girl a little test to see if she is worthy of him! He had done it with his previous girlfriends! So if Katie can figure it out, then Travis will know for sure. Though, when I asked him if she had failed to accomplish the, hypothetically, would he still forgive her? He said, and I quote, 'Even if she does, I'll still love her knowing that she tried, because Katie just doesn't give up!'"

When Katie had heard what Connor had had to say, she soundlessly dropped to her knees, smiling like an idiot, knowing that whatever Travis had setup for her. It was only a test of love, and she will fight till the end to figure this mystery out!


	2. Chapter 2

**I would like to thank; SwiftieClaire, Kat567, GreakFreak and DiamondsAndJewels123 for motivating me! You guys really helped me, thank you!**

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When Katie had risen and come out of her haze, she had realized she had been sitting on the floor for a near good 2 hours. Just thinking. Wondering. Imagining, what kind of things she will encounter during this, 'Test' per se.

The sun was well above horizon, and the birds chirped their morning tune, whilst trees cast their morning shadows on the dew covered turf. Cautiously, and carefully, Katie stepped out of the God of Thieves Cabin, and made her way to her own cabin. _'Ugh its so hoy outside!' _Katie thought as she covered her eyes to block the sun rays from hitting her. She pretending like nothing had ever happened. Just going with her daily routine; waking up, or in this case she was already awake, putting on their famous Camp Half-Blood tee-shirt, and going to work. No time for fiddling, no time for goofing around.

Katie had been wearing her Camp shirt from the time she had gone to Travis' cabin, so, she just made her way to the strawberry fields, knowing that she was VERY late!

When Katie saw that all her other siblings were looking at her funny, she still kept walking, but quite embarrassed actually, because she didn't know why they were looking at her like that.

"Ummmmm, Katie...?" Katie's older half-brother Justin asked her, with a particular shaken almost uneasy voice.

Katie looked up at her brother with question written all over her face, "What...? What are you guys staring at me like that for?" Katie asked rather defiantly. But when the words escaped her mouth, she covered it with her hands and felt an over powering wave of guilt crash down upon her.

She looked up at Justin with saddened eyes, eyes filled with sorrow and guilt. She hadn't meant to take it out on him, it's just the amount of stress she had been anointed with in the last two-and-a-half hours had made her unstable and he was the first person she had encountered, so he got the Katie Thunder.

"Um sis, there's blood on your shirt..." Justin finally said in a hushed voice. Katie then proceeded to look at her shirt, and indeed find the fake blood she had discovered earlier this morning, it was all over her shirt. It didn't even look orange in the front anymore.

Then she remembered; when she had heard Connor's and Chiron's voice outside the cabin and she dropped the syringe on the floor and it had spattered everywhere. All over the floors, all over the beds, and all over Katie's shirt because she had squeezed it before she had dropped it.

"Ohhhhhh shiiiittt..." Katie said to herself. She looked up at her brother hoping he would somehow understand the situation she was in, though he was and is oblivious to what had happened previously. She looked back down at her "bloody t-shirt" and looked back up at him to see Justin smirking. "What are you smiling? Mister?" Katie asked her brother annoyed!

He laughed at her, "Oh nothing! Just stuff, ya'know?" Justin asked with a grin plastered on his chiseled face. Problem was, Justin wasn't the one who was oblivious-it was Katie. She didn't know that Justin was one of the only ones who knew of the Test for Katie. She thought it was herself alone, and Connor and Travis and Chiron who knew.

"Hmmmmm, not really... But I'm keeping my eyes on you mister!" Katie exclaimed while she stocked off leaving behind a very satisfied Justin.

As soon as Justin saw that Katie had walked far out of earshot, he pulled out a walkie-talkie from his cargo pants and spoke to it. "Okay guys, Katie's got the blood on the shirt and she's making her way to our cabin now! Over and out." He looked back at Katie, seeing that she had almost made it back to the cabin, and smiled to himself and carried on his field work.

* * *

Katie had finally reached her after that exhausting walk in the sauna like weather. She was so tired she almost missed the neat letter that had been placed in the pin-point center of her bed.

Katie walked over to it cautiously, expecting it to explode or something, but finding that it was just a simple letter with the fanciest cursive print she'd ever seen. She carefully picked up the letter, as if the delicacy of it and the fragility of it- it would just crumble to pieces.

The daughter of Demeter looked around her cabin to make sure no one was lurking around. She found no one so she proceeded to examine the envelope. She ran her slender fingers along the front of the delicate envelope. It was the colour of cream quite opaque, the texture was smooth with a few ridges here and there. The print on the front was elegant cursive wording her name and it's frame was small- assuming the letter to be short.

Katie proceeded to open the envelope, turning it around onto the back of the envelope, she flipped the cover up and took the small piece of paper from the opening. But before Katie opened the paper, she eyed it. Waiting for it to do something. To turn into Greek fire, to disappear with a _poof_, or to explode in her hands releasing a stink-bomb. But it did nothing, just sat Inbetween her forefinger and thumb, she then flipped it open to find the messiest and most disgusting hand-printing known to man; Travis' handwriting.

_Go to your dresser mirror and they'll be another letter awaiting you - T, C, J, P and A._

Katie stared at the letter dumbfounded, _'Who the hell is T, C, J, P and A? What kind of sick-twisted game is this?!'_ Katie thought as had put the letter down, after reading it a numerous amount of times to get it memorized and implanted into her cranium, and made her way to her dresser.

She indeed did fine another letter in the crevice of the mirror and the wooded frame. She pulled it out, ripped off the envelope letting the remains of it falling to the ground, she had had about enough with this, but then she remembered this was a test, and she didn't want to lose Travis over some stupid game, but she was determined to figure this puzzle out.

Katie started wide-eyed at the letter. She felt tears trickling down her cheeks, the salty liquid clouding her eyes. What kind of game was this truly?

_Remember when we used to play together? When we were 7? Remember how I loved to pull your hair and tickle you stomach? Remember how you just liked to live and how you were so carefree, remember how I used to love that about you? Where did you go Kate's? I need you here with me physically, you're here with me but not presently. As if your spirit and soul had drifted off and left you with a hollow, empty shell. I think it's time you learned what really happened to you during your childhood - Travis, the one who REALLY loves you_


	3. Chapter 3

Katie was furious. _'Who the hell does Travis think he is?!'_ she thought to herself. Her tears had long since dried, and now anger was the only remaining emotion that lied within her body. But the streaks from her cried river were apparent on her cheeks.

Her greens eyes were filled with anger, halved into slits as she was still glaring at the letter. Her brown hair disheveled, like a bird had nested it's way into it. Her nose was red from all the crying, liquified snot dripping from her nasal passage, fake blood stained her camp shirt. Basically- she was a mess.

She examined the contents of the letter again, but stopped abruptly as she came to a specific line.

_I think it's time you learned what really happened during your childhood. _

Katie dropped the paper alarmingly, as if it had been on fire and it torched her. But really, it scarred her. The one simple, yet deep, line had driven a crater in her heart. For some unknown reason, Katie felt that there was always something missing.

She always thought there was something that had been misplaced, something that was big that was somewhere lost in her mind. She felt that she forgot something that had changed her life in a way that stopped the continuum, and the flow of her natural life.

Katie knew there was something missing, but she couldn't put her finger on it. That something was at the tip of her tounge, waiting to be unleashed but always got held back for an unbeknownst reasoning.

Katie was thinking of the letter, letting it wander in her head and letting it make assumptions and giving it an image in her head. Letting it take control of her. She let her imagination get the best of her. What brought her back to reality was when she banged her heel on her brother's, Justin, treasure chest.

She let a single tear escape her eye, before she ran out the door. She reached the front porch wheezing, panting even, from the shortness of breath and the short run she had made from the door to the porch.

When her breathing calmed and her tears were to a minimum, she placed her hands on her hips and looked out at the forest. Katie took a step down from the porch then heard her cabin door slam shut!

Katie turned around scared, expecting the worst as she closed her eyes shut. Waiting to be eaten, Katie stood there like an idiot. But when she opened her eyes she found another envelope plastered on her cabin door. The daughter of Demeter walked up to the door cautiously and ripped the letter from the door, leaving half of the envelope, with a piece of tape, hanging from it.

She looked at the letter, this one had extremely messy handwriting, though not as messy as Travis'-but still pretty messy. Katie examined the piece of paper long enough to realize that the print belonged to Percy. Enough of a give away that the letter was for one, blue. Two, the letter had sand in it. And three, it smelt like the sea. And of course to make it anymore obvious it had Poseidon's Trident in the corner of the page.

Katie looked at the letter, half expecting this, half scared of what's to come.

_Go to Zeus' fist, where someone will be awaiting you - T, C, J, P and A_

Katie thought about the people that were sending her these mystery letters. _T, C, J, P and A_. She was curious to know who all these people were. Then suddenly, something clicked.

Katue thought about the previous letters. One from these _T, C, J, P and A_ people, one from Travis and another one from the mysterious stalkers. Yeah, that's what Katie's calling them now, The Mysterious Stalkers. Anyways, Katie had been thinking that the _T_ person must be Travis. And the _P_ person must be Percy. And now she only had to figure out who _C, J and A _are. _  
_

Before Katie made her way into the forest, she walked back into her cabin and got the two previous letters, just for good measure.

And at that Katie dashed and ran into the forest, hearing twigs snap and leaves rustle. She was unafraid of the moment of time, mainly because it was still broad daylight, so even if she got hurt, or other things, she could just scream, "Rape!" or, "Fire!" or even, "HELP! SOMEONE IS STEALING MY GROCERIES!"

When Katie was halfway through the forest, Katie remembered she hadn't changed her shirt, which was her main objective for going to her cabin in the first place. She mentally slapped herself for her stupidity, but there was no turning back now. She was not backing down. Not now, not ever.

When it came to Travis, Katie would go to the end of the world to meet him. If she broke her legs, she would crawl. If she had no life left in her she would still go, knowing that the chance to see Travis' face would give her the energy to make it. She loves him. And only if she had realized this sooner could she have reduced the chance of this. But no, this was a test of love. And test of strategy and survival. And she was not going down without a fight. People say that it takes real guts to think that way, but with Katie- it was for love.

Katie saw a clearing up ahead and smiled to herself, she was happy knowing that she was one step closer to seeing Travis, one step closer to hugging him, one step closer to touch him and to kiss him. Katie's fingers fumbled to her lips as she thought about kissing Travis Stoll. The most arrogant, self-centered, hot-headed, jerk she had ever met, but she she still loved him. Even with all those terrible traits, Katie still found the good that Travis possessed. The good that was within him.

Katie was so preoccupied with her thoughts of Travis that she missed the root sticking out of the ground and tripped over it. _'Hmmmmmmmmm, seriously! Now I had to! Of all the places and the times, I had to trip and fall on my face now?!'_ Katie thought as she groaned out loud and rubbed her forehead.

She stepped into the clearing with a scowl on her face. Upon reaching the fist she saw someone she would never think to see, sitting on top of the fist. Someone so rare. The person Katie had been dying to meet, but it was always impossible to.

"Mom?" Katie said with tears in her eyes, and a smile on her face.

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**Hey! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm having a serious case of writers block at the moment, so please, if you will, leave a review and some ideas? *she asks with the hopes that you do, because CaityLightning loves all her readers and hopes her readers love her too!* please help me with ideas!.**


	4. Chapter 4

Katie ran towards her mother with tears falling down her cheeks and an apparent smile on her face. But she stopped suddenly. _'Maybe it's inappropriate to hug her. After all, she is a Greek Goddess.'_ So, Katie walked the rest of the way towards her mother with worry and sadness and happiness. A mix of emotions really.

"Oh Katie my dear, you're so grown up!" Demeter said to her favourite daughter. When Katie arrived to infront of her mother she looked up at her and saw that Demeter had her arms open, waiting for a hug.

Upon seeing so, Katie immediately rushed into her mothers arms. Longing for this day when Katie could hug her mom, and talk to her mom. She cried into her mothers silk gown just wishing that time would stop so she could spend the rest of time in her mothers embrace. But she couldn't, she had a mission and a few questions to ask of her mother.

Demeter's embrace, on her favorable daughter, tightened. She wished she could stay with her daughter. She really did, but she belonged in Olympus with her fellow brothers and sisters watching their children from afar. Demeter's blond hair blew in the wind as she also wished that time could stop.

Katie looked up at her mother, though Demeter was a few inches taller that her she didn't mind. "What are you doing here? In camp? You're not supposed to be here! What if someone caught-"

Demeter closed her eyes and hushed her daughter by letting go of her, Katie longed for her mothers warmth again as she was pulled away. Demeter opened her eyes with a serious yet gentle but hard look in her eyes. "Katie my child, Chiron knows I'm here! He allowed me to come, and Zeus granted me only this one time to come see you! To come see any of you for that fact! I came to see my little 'Katie-bug'!" Demeter's eyes softened as she saw her daughters own eyes well with tears.

Katie covered her mouth to restrain the chocking noises from escaping her vocal cords. How did her mother know about Katie-bug? Only her father called her that, and her rachet-hoe step mother who attempted to call her by her nickname, but failed as she got a weeks worth of dandelions growing out of- places. *cough* *cough* *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

Demeter regained her composure, straightening her back and looking her daughter dead in the eye. "No Katie, I came here because your lovely, but somewhat irrational and irresponsible and reckless, he's really dirty! I mean, how can you live in that cabin?! Like seriously?! And he is a son of Heremes so I kind of expected that-"

Katie cut off her mother because one, she wanted to hear what her mother was going to say and two, she didn't want to hear her mother say things about Travis, who she assumed her mother was talking about, especially things that were harsh but sadly true. She just didn't want to hear it. "Mom. You came her because...?"

Demeter looked at her daughter with confused eyes and then beamed as she remembered she was strictly on business. Hey, being a Goddess was difficult so sometimes a Goddess can be a ditz. "OH YES! I came here becuase of your boyfriend Travis. He wanted me to give you a letter."

Demeter closed her eyes and was chanting Ancient Greek words, words that were unbeknownst to Katie. When Demeter was done she looked up at the sky, Katie followed her actions and too looked up at the sky to see a letter floating down. Just gracefully riding with the breeze and stopping mod-air as it landed infront of Katie's face.

Katie let out a gasp of awe. She was amazed of the miracle she had just experienced, the magic that had just happened before her eyes. Yes, Katie knew all God's and Goddess' were capable of that sort of magic, but it still amazed her.

"Wow!" Katie exclaimed, still amazed. "That was awesome! But...what's inside it?" Katie asked curiously, like a child.

Demeter smiled at her daughter as she backed away from her. Katie looked at her alarmingly anticipating this day but never really preparing for it, not so soon, not really ever... "No, no, no, no, no, no! NO! Don't go, not yet!" Katie screamed as she saw her mother disappearing.

"Katie my daughter. I love you, don't ever forget that! You will soon discover what's inside the letter, but you must open it when I leave. Just because I'm not here physically doesn't mean I'm gone. I'll always be here." Demeter put her palm ,opened, over her heart. "I love you Katie, do your very best! I'll always guide you, I'll always be there with you in your heart. Good bye, I love tou soo much." Demeter chocked when she said the first part.

Katie stood there astonished. Looking at her disappearing mother, to shocked to talk, to shocked to cry, to shocked to do anything.. But Katie had one last thing to say, "I love you too mom..." even though her mother was gone,she knew Demeter heard her and Katie was satisfied with that and smiled. Just a little grin.

She has totally forgotten the letter in her hand but brought it up eye-level to her and examined it. Dark grey- like storm clouds, _'Huh... That's an odd colour for a letter.. Yeah well nothing around here is normal!'_ Katie was looking at it vaguely but noticed an owl on the top right-hand corner of the envelope. It has letters in Greek on it. Katie looked at it in confusion but made out the six letters. _H.E.D.W.I.G. 'Who the fuck-opps. Who is Hedwig?! Jesus the names they have these days!'_ But then Katie remembered that Annabeth, being a total bookworm, was talking to Katie about some Harry Potter fellow? And he had some pet owl that was named Hedwig, but it was girl! That flabbergasted Katie! Annabeth had tried to get Katie to read the book but when Katie saw the size of book 4 and 5, actually all of them for that matter, she fainted.

Katie carried on with her investigation and discovered something, _'So then this must be Annabeths writing..'_ then Katie saw how neat it was and remembered "Hedwig", _'Yup, definitely Annabeth. For a smart person she has some nice writing...'_ Katie thought as she finally decided to open the letter.

_Good, you saw your mother! I hope that gets you out of that little mood that's been downing on you. Tonight after dinner go to camp boarders and you'll find us there. We'll be waiting - T, C, J, P and A_

__"Zeus that's creepy! Well if I need to find these answers then I'm going to have to go! Uh huh, again! What is withme and this talking!" Katie rolled her eyes at herself and walked off to her cabing anticipating what will happen tonight when she goes. What If she can't go? What if she gets caught? What if they kill her?

all these questions flooded Katie's mind as she walked through the forest but remembered what her mother told her, _"I'll always be with you, in your heart. I love you."_ with those words of encouragement Katie was far off from giving up! She was determined to find out what happened to Travis, and hell, she's determined to find some answeres! She won't give up, no matter what!

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**Ah ah hah haha haaaaa... IM SORRY! :,( I know this is late! Forgive me? :D I'm sorry, ya'know, I was sick I had a fever- it was like 102 degrees o.O and then I got crammed with second semester starting and homework... HIGHSCHOOL IS REALLY HECTIC! I'm sorry once again... :,) **


	5. Chapter 5

Katie had gotten to her cabin and was waiting. Just waiting. She counted down the minutes until the dinner bell chimed. She counted down the minutes she'd have to wait until she saw who _T, J, C, P and A_ are.

She was waiting. And she was getting pissed.

Katie was sitting on the very edge of her bed, looking at her clock on the cabin wall and was tapping her foot impatiently. _Tick tock, tick tock. _With every second that went by felt like she had been waiting an eon. In reality it had only been 3:30 in the afternoon.

_'How much longer am I gonna have to wait?!'_ Katie thought to herself impatiently.

Every second that went by she grew angrier, but every second that went by she grew doubtful. Doubtful that she would show up. Doubtful that _they_ would show up. Doubtful that whatever was going to happen was going to be good. Katie was starting to doubt herself of many levels that made her grow quite uncomfortable until the point that she felt suffocated by the lack of positivity she mounted her being with.

She needed air.

With this suffocation, she got up from her spot on her bed and walked to the cabin entrance, and yanked the door open so fast that she missed the tall blond that was standing infront of her with his hand fist raised in the action about to knock the door.

"Malcolm? What are you doing here?" Katie asked shaken and exhausted.

Malcolm raised his eyebrows and lowered his hand, "This," he handed her an envelope. The envelope was solid copper, but had a mechanical oily smell to it. It also had a hammer on the right top hand corner of it, but no writing. It looked rusty and old, but had an ancient look to it.

"Uh thanks Malcolm." Katie said to him awkwardly.

Malcolm smiled brightly and said, "No problem Kates. See ya!" he said as he descended the Demeter cabin stairs and waved to her.

_'Oh Zeus, Malcolm is so damn hot. When did he hit puberty?!_ Katie thought to herself. Hey, just because Katie had a boyfriend didn't mean she didn't notice other guys. _'Travis is still cuter! I wonder how he's doing...'_ Katie thought sadly. How was he indeed she thought. What in the Zeus' name was _actually_ going on? And how the _actual_ _fuck_ (A/N: AHHHHHH I swore XD) did she get herself in this mess in the first place?

Then it hit her, she had a sudden Thomas Edison moment when the light bulb went off in her head, she is doing it for love. Katie laughed, but it showed no significant trace of humor. She clutched the metal envelope in her hand, it's bladed and pointy corner stabbing her skin. She held it so hard till the point where it punctured her palm and broke loose the deep crimson liquid underneath the skin. She hated what she was going through. Though it had only been a few hours since the hunt down began, to Katie, it felt like it had been days.

Katie looked up at the sky smiling, but the corners of her lips were tilted up menacingly. _'Im doing it for love. I should write a book about this called; The Absolute Shit Girls Go Through For Love.'_ Katie went back inside her cabin to look at the letter but first deciding to change her shirt, since ya'know she hadn't and it was still covered in Strawberry Syrup.

About 10 minutes passed and she had changed her shirt, brushed all the tangles out of her hair and was sitting on her bed cross-legged staring at the copper envelope._  
_

She fumbled with the weight of it, weighing about 5 pounds give-or-take. At the back of the envelope the flap that covered the mouth was closed off with a pushpin and bonded with solder. _'Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to get this open?!'_ Katie debated her options. She could forget about the letter and this whole thing, or she could hunt down a blowtorch and give this sucker a good punch. But her dilema was...she didn't know where she could find a blowtorch.

_'First of all, if I was a blowtorch where would I hide...'_ Katie thought to herself. Then it hit her, the Hephaestus cabin. Where else would it be?

_'Hephaestus is the god of fire and craftsmen, so it would only be natural to be there.'_ Katie thought.

Katie scooted off her bed, shoved the envelope in her back pocket, checked the time: 10 minutes past 4 (which is ultimately 4:10, just if you didn't know (: ), and walked out her cabin.

She passed a few cabins and then came face-to-face with the brick and smokestack house. The sound of gears turning and smoke bellowing out of the stakes, it looked like a little factory. And vaguely like a oversized motor home.

Katie walked up the porch to the almost-like vault, thick of metal, circular, rust smelling doors. Katie literally heard gears turning and clanking as she approached the cabin door. She had never been to the particular cabin before...consumed of fear for some odd reason as she came upon the door.

Katie knocked on cabin 9's door and heard a hollow _bang_ of the metal. She heard murmurs from within the door, voices that vaguely sounded of Travis' and Leo Valdez's voices. Her eyebrows furrowed in inquiry, _'What in the world... Is Travis in there!?'_

Katie banged on the door harder this time and heard more distinctive voices, more clearer ones. She heard someone swear _extremely_ loud and also heard the faint sound of chairs scraping against the floor. To Katie it sounded horrifyingly like nails being scratched against a blackboard._  
_

"Who is it..?" Leo Valdez called from inside the cabin.

"Umm, it Katie. Katie Gardner-" Katie was about to finish but heard the sound of a very heavy tool hit the metal floor in the cabin with a humongous _BOOM!_

There was silence for a couple counts before Katie heard Leo say, "GO, GO!"

Footsteps pounded on the metal slatted floors and Katie was getting impatient by the wait, and to say-Katie was a very patient person.

She needed to see Travis, she knew he was in there and it broke her heart to know he hadn't come visit her. Her sanity was wavering with the inability to see the love of her life. She felt as thought someone was literally straining her energy and strength away by little strands, and taking eternity to do so which, in theory, made it even more painful to bear.

Katie unconsciously gripped the copper envelope, and maybe it was her imagination, but Katie rationalized that the metal was becoming quite malleable. She let the absurd thought vanish into the depths of her mind.

Katie looked at the door and was about to pound on it 10x harder than she had the first time, but the vault door swung open, and a lot of smoke protruded from it Katie had to swipe it away with her hands, and it revealed a heavy breathing, swear trickling, whacko-smiling, suspenders wearing, Leo Valdez.

Leo had one arm leaning against the metal frame of the door, and one in his pant pocket, looking at Leo Katie thought he looked like he had just broken out of jail with the black-and-white pants he was styling. With one wrong thought Katie would have passed Leo as seductive with his posture minus the fact that he was shorter than her, his outfit was off and he had motor oil smudges on his teeth.

As Katie sized up Leo, she had to force down the the obnoxious amount of laughter she had bubbling up in her throat. "Uh hey Leo, you got a little something..." Katie took her pointer finger and made a gesture towards her own mouth of where that "little something" was.

Leo's playful smile disappeared as he raced inside his cabin and cleaned off the oil smudges. Katie stood outside until Leo finished, and when he came back he gestured her to come inside. Katie hesitantly stepped inside the metal enforced cabin and turned around to close the door, she pressed her left palm on the thick metal and pushed-it didn't budge.

Katie gave a quizzical once-over at the door, placed the letter on the floor, rolled up her pretend sleeves, and placed her right hand on the door to push again-it didn't budge. Again.

She looked at Leo who was giving her an odd look of pure confusion. "Leo, why the crap won't the door close!?" Katie asked Leo as she raised both eyebrows at him.

Leo only chuckled in return as he took a seat on one of his cabins many steel bunks and stared at her whilst she struggled, and laughed as she did so. Katie's eyes boggled out as Leo, one, didn't answer her question and, two, just sat there and didn't help.

"Y-you're not gonna help!?" Katie shouted at Leo as he just sat on the bench with his elbow on his leg propping his chin up.

Leo shook his head at her indicating the answer being a big fat _no._ She looked at him with one of her most cold-hearted, meaningful, death capable, stares. She was getting mad furious with every moment that ticked by, and her mood swing was apparent.

Leo remained unfazed by her glare and change of mood which only ticked Katie off even more! Sooner or later Leo would be sorry because he would get the Katie Thunder.

"FINE!" Katie barked at Leo and lifted her right foot and kicked the door. As soon as her foot made contact with the metal door, any significant trace of anger washed away and what emotion was left on Katie's face was pain. "Ahhhh dammit!" Katie started limping around the cabin with her right foot in both hands, face swollen with pain and her left foot hurting from the amount of pressure being put on it.

"Okay, okay! I'll help you." Leo said with self-satisfaction. He got up from the bunk and helped Katie sit on his, and went to the door and closed it with a gentle push.

Katie heard it groan and creak whilst it closed, smoke bellowing and gears making an obnoxiously loud banging sound as they turned together.

At this time, Katie's foot stopped hurting and she got a good look at the cabin. Metal floors and walls, steel bunks folded on the walls, a control panel with scraps and discarded clothes everywhere. Needless to say, it wasn't a clean cabin. At all.

Katie had heard of there being a basement underneath the floor, with power-tools and spare metal lying around on work-benches and also an assortment of fine weaponry. Katie cringed at the thought of lethal weapons within the near grasp of the Hephaestus children, but, they were kids of a blacksmith God-so it only made sense.

"So Katie, what is it you needed my acquaintances with?" Leo asked, sitting on the floor infront of her.

"I need..." Katie got up from her spot on Leo's bed and made her way over to the front door, and grabbed the copper letter. She smiled and said, "...help opening this. Please?" Katie asked Lel innocently.

Leo smirked at the letter, "So, you finally got it. Took Malcolm long enough." Leo outstretched his hand wordlessly asking for the letter.

Katie complied and handed him the letter then asked, "You made Malcolm give me the letter? Why?" she looked at Leo quizzically.

Leo shrugged, "Gives it more mystery." he said with a plastered smirk.

Katie rolled her eyes, _'Oh this is definitely a mystery alright.'_ Katie looked down at Leo on the floor and asked, "Do you think you can open it?"

As soon as Katie asked the question she wanted to slap herself. _'__Of course he can! He made it for Zeus' sake!'_ Though Katoe didn't know 100% if he did Infact make the letter, she had a pretty good hunch he had.

Leo looked up at Katie and smiled sympathetically, "I know Katie, this must be really hard on you. Your mind must be boggles with all of this coming at you all at once. Don't sweat it, I can open it no problemo! And, don't give up. I know you can make it through."

Katie dropped to her knees and looked at Leo through tears. She hadn't anticipated going to the Hephaestus cabin to be comforted by Leo Valdez of all people, but she's happy that someone believes in her. "Thank you." Katie smiled at Leo, a whole hearted smile.

"Ah, no problem. And hey, if you need a shoulder to cry on I'm always here, or if you just need a good laugh, you could always just come over and look at my jail-break pants!" Leo stated the last part proudly.

Katies tears had disappeared and she was now clutching her stomach, rolling on the cool metal slatted floors, laughing her derrière off. "Thanks Leo, I'll take you up on that offer, so don't disappoint me!" Katie said sternly.

Leo chuckled and ignited his fore-finger and melted the top of the letter off. He smiled sadly at the letter and gave it to Katie with a smile.

She accepted the letter with a nod and was about to open it when she and Leo both heard footsteps making their way towards the cabin door. Katie looked at Leo in fear and he reflected the same position of his face. Even though it was broad daylight, things that have been going on recently have freaked Katie out. Little things give her jump-scares, and leave her heart beating erratically.

They both sat frozen on the floor, eyes trained on the door, the footsteps stopped and quiet murmurs could be heard outside. Then they heard the footsteps descending the porch steps, and gave a sigh of relief.

But all to soon, the footsteps came back with vengeance, and then there was an extremely loud banging on the door. Katie and Leo cowered their way to the back of the cabin. The all so suddenly there was a rough voice. The person was calling Katies name..

"KATIE GARDNER... Times up."

* * *

_**Hope you enjoyed the chapter and cliff-hanger! I'm so so so so so so soooooo sincerely sorry for posting this so late. I promise the next chapter won't come a month late like this one :,( and im soo sorry if there are any grammatical errors, or if it bored you, or if it doesn't make a ton of sense... O.o tell me how you liked it, leave a review if you want, and tell me if I need to make any changes :D **_

_**Salute ;) **_


	6. Chapter 6

_'Times up?'_ Katie thought. _'What the hell does "Times up" mean!?'_ Katie though angrily to herself.

She got up from her momentary cowardliness and made her way towards the cabin door, not caring about her loud stomps, and gripped the door handle and pulled it open.

Outside she saw Travis, Justin, Connor, Percy and Annabeth, all in black assassin suits with Nerf Water guns and plastic BB shooters.

They scrutinized one another. Katie looking at each and every one of them attentively, while the five of them watched Katie.

Each person judging the other by their physical appearance.

"W-what-how-why?" Katie couldn't put her words into a full sentence, the structure coming up broken and all around. Only incoherent stutters were the only sound that spewed out of her mouth. More or less because she was shocked to seem there, threatening her that her time was up.

"GO GO!" Travis screamed. Annabeth, Percy, Justin and Connor followed him as he ran off the porch and disappeared into the forest.

Katie stood there shocked. Then out of nowhere a smirk apperared on her face. _'So he wants to play dirty, huh? Well Stoll, two can play at that game.' _Probelm was, Karoe didnt know how to play dirty. She'd have to find out. Katie stormed into Leo's cabin and grabbed the metal envelope. Not knowing what to do with it,-_'Wait. Don't your read letters...? Well no shit Katie of course you do!'_ she pulled out the slick paper from inside it and read it.

_SOOOOOOOO, Katie. finally got the letter I see. No worries, all you need to know is that there is a new member to this click. is that even the right word? Click, cleek, i dunno but its something. UGH! all YOU need to know is that there is a new person in this trial thing-a-ma-bob. and you might be puzzled by who I am, but you went ask me to open it right? That is right ladies and gentlemen, it is, I, Leo Valdez the Great and Powerful Wiz- wait. I mean Leo Valdez The Great and Powerful Demigod. Yes fear my sexiness. Sincerely your- oh wait I'm the the new member of T, J, C, P and A now there's an L included. Sincerely yours- Leo Valez. _

Katie fumed as she read the letter, _'Leo's in on this sick-twisted joke to, huh? Asshole, and to think I thought he was actually sympathizing for me. What a jerk.' _Katie was pissed at this whole thing. It wasn't even funny anymore, she had has enough. And she was going to stop it.

Katie walked out of the Hephaestus cabinand saw that it was pitch black outside. She could have sworn it was mid-afternoon when she came to Leo's cabin. _'Obviously I lost track of time.' _Katie thought to herself.

Something caught Katie's attention, she saw something moving in the strawberry fields, well what she could see of the field of now black. _'Oh shit!'_ Katie thought as she ran down the cabin porch and scurried off to her cabin like a ninja, never seem never heard.

When Katie reached her cabin all of her siblings were sleeping, so she quietly crept towards her bed and fell on it, not even bothering to change her clothes because of her exhaustion.

_'Tomorrow is going to be a long day...'_ Katie thought as sleep took over her and she went into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

When Katie woke up, she looked at her alarm clock and saw that it was only 4:30 in the morning.

_'Seriously...it's freaking 4:30 in the goddamn morning..what's did I wake up?' _Katie thought groggily as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up in her small bed.

She scanned her cabin and saw that Justin was missing. _'Where is he...?' _

She looked out the window and saw that the sun was barley breaking the horizon. But something caught her eye, a shadow was moving along the window. A shadow with curly hair, a large nose and a built body.

"Travis..." Katie said, barley a whisper. She watched the figure as it walked to and from each side if the window. Just walking, as if contemplating.

Katie got out of the bed as quietly as possible never taking her eyes off the mystery person, unfortunately her bed was quite old, and from all the pillow fights and "Trampolining", it had gotten quite loud over the years.

The figure stopped walking and turned to the window abruptly. Katie stood in place, not knowing what to do, so she just stood there. With an anxious look in her eyes, and fear apparent on her face, wishing that the shadow would start walking again.

The figure looked away from the window and started walking again, but what Katie didn't realize was the figure had walked away.

Katie raced out of her cabin to see the shadowy figure, to find out who the mystery person was, praying to Zeus that it was Travis... but, when she got outside the person was gone, nowhere to be seen, incognito- as if the shadow vanished into thin air.

She looked around panicky, willing her vision to make her see the figure again. Hoping that it wasn't an illusion, praying that her eyes hadn't deceived her, hoping that the person was real, just hoping and praying.

Then all of a sudden, Katie started to laugh. _Hahaha _she went, almost hysterically. Laughing so loud that her stomach hurt from the lack of oxygen that was entering her body. Laughing so hard that she almost fell to the ground. Still clutching her stomach from the laughing pain,she stopped laughing and started crying.

Katie's heart hurt from love, her head hurt from stress and lack of sleep and now her stomach hurt from laughing for no apparent reason. She was a mess, her body shook with sobs, salty water trickled down her face, each drop filled with her sorrows. She wiped them away sheepishly.

She felt cold with the early morning breeze, the sun was staring to break the horizon and she stopped crying. Katie was acting bipolar because she started to smile, she thought of all thr happy moments with Travis and actually considered him, properly, for once. She looked at the sky and back at the woods, then turned her head to the left and saw someone emerging from the side of her cabin.

Katie's eyes widened in alarm. Then she said, "No way..."

* * *

PLEASE READ : ) most people would skip this, I WOULD SKIP THIS..but PLEASE PLEASE READ!

**Haha, sorry for the late update...*insert sheepish grin* I'm loosing inspiration for this story... I'm thinking of putting it up for adoption, *large sigh* BUT FEAR NOT! I have another idea for a Tratie story and it is kind of gruesome... *now insert evil grin* so if you like gore and horror and blood ; ) then this story that I'm starting, but not for a while, will be the one for you! I actually have a beginning, middle and end for this story and I think it will be pretty awesome! I don't know if it's been done before, I hope not...**

**Lets play a game : ) **

**Who can guess my favourite Youtuber : ) whoever gets this right will get an insight to my new Tratie story : ) Leave a comment telling me who you think it is : ) I'm evil I know.**

**Ill give you hints:**

**-His name is Felix**

**-He hates barrels **

**Obviusoly you know hes a guy now XD Lol, good luck! And I apoligize for the late update again, I love you all! You guys are awesome and are my friends : ) all my readers are my friends XD I love you guys for staying with me this whole time! I love you all, and thank you soooo soooo soooo much. That is a wrap, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee XD **


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